Hybrid Pipe Organs
Experience the seamless fusion of pipe and digital organ
Patented Tuning Technology
Simple Hookup
Existing Console or New
Every Viscount Laurel (Hybrid Pipe Organ System) uses a patented, dual-tuning method that listens to your pipes and anticipates changes in temperature and pressure. This means your hybrid organ with digital stops, powered by our state-of-the-art Physis® technology, will always sound perfectly matched to your existing windblown pipes.
Physis® goes beyond simple sampling. It allows us to recreate the exact sound of your real pipes, down to the metal composition and voicing characteristics. This creates a seamless ensemble, as if the digital voices have always been part of your historic pipe organ.
The beauty of Viscount Laurel is its flexibility. Install it on your existing console, or choose from our selection of new consoles designed for the 21st-century church. We can even rebuild your existing console to like-new condition. No matter your preference, Viscount Laurel ensures your pipe organ continues to inspire for generations to come.
Laurel is available for already existing and new pipe organs
Application 1: An Existing Pipe Organ Digital Upgrade Utilizing Original Console
Before Laurel Upgrade
Despite a perfectly functional pipe organ, this church faced an aging and unreliable console. Our certified Laurel™ installer consulted directly with them, understanding their musical needs and crafting a budget-friendly solution that revitalized their worship experience.
After Laurel Upgrade
The Viscount Certified Laurel™ Installer transformed the existing console with cutting-edge technology, adding a custom stop rail with captivating digital voices that blend seamlessly with your existing pipes. Physis®, Viscount's patented technology, allowed them to meticulously recreate each virtual pipe rank, perfectly matching the scaling, temperament, and overall tone of your real windblown pipes. This extends beyond sound, replicating wind pressures and even mimicking windchest stability, ensuring a flawlessly realistic hybrid organ experience - the most advanced option available.
Application 2: An Existing Pipe Organ Digital Upgrade Utilizing New Viscount Console
Old Organ Design Covering Window
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Altoona, PA had an Estey Pipe Organ, originally installed in 1923. It served the church well for many decades as their only service instrument. At some point, the organ was rebuilt, and additional pipes were added that steered the organ away from its original tonal qualities. With the assistance of Authorized and Highly Qualified Viscount Pipe Technicians, we replaced their old cotton-covered wiring, revoiced the altered pipes back to their 1923 glory, added additional complementing ranks of pipes from a similar Estey from a now closed church, reconfigured the physical layout back to the way it was originally to reveal Our Lady of Mount Carmel’s beautiful window, added a brand new luxurious Viscount Organ Console, and integrated additional digital voices into the stoplist specification through Laurel™. The digital voices on the Laurel™ Hybrid Pipe Organ System are powered by Viscount’s state-of-the-art Physis® Technology. Since Physis® is not based on sampled (recorded pipes), but instead on physical modeling, we were able to build every single rank of the digital voices to match the scaling, wind pressures, metal content, types of wood, cut-ups, etc. in the pipes exactly to the real Estey windblown pipes. This can be done with any pipe organ in any application anywhere in the world through Laurel™.
New Design Revealing Window
With previous sampled based technologies, we must try and fit a recorded pipe sound of another pipe from potentially another maker of pipe organs to fit the tonal palette of a real windblown pipe of yet a different organ maker. This method has its challenges, but is still successful for some other digital organ manufacturers. Our approach is completely different however, state of the art, and in our opinion forward thinking. Instead of trying to pigeon hole a sample to fit, we are able to custom build every single voice to the pipes, so they breath and sound as one glorious ensemble of sound. We want the organ to sound as if it was always there. If your church has an existing pipe organ that you would like to retain and continue utilizing but the console is in need of updating or replacement, this would be the perfect opportunity to consider a Viscount. You might be surprised that the cost is less than you think. Even if no digital voices are desired at all, Laurel™ and a Viscount Organ Console can still power your pipe organ for less than many other organ console manufacturers.
Photos from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church
Listen Now: Laurel, Viscount's Hybrid Pipe Organ System
Application 3: New Custom Designed Pipe Organ Utilizing Additional Digital Voices
Design Concept for New Pipe Organ
Jesus the Good Shepherd wanted a beautiful new organ designed for their space. The organist needed an excellent view and the ability to direct from the console. An American Overture console was chosen. This model has All-American voicing, but the console is a gorgeous modern low-profile french terrace design, that remains reminiscent to Cavaille-Coll of Paris. JGS is part of a larger community that includes a catholic school. It was important for them to use the new organ as a teaching tool, and also signal to the next generation of church musicians that the organ is the instrument that’s central to their ministry, now and into the future. Since Viscount’s dealer network includes many pipe organ builders, we were able to offer them an American made and voiced pipe organ division, along with this high-quality custom console, digital voice additions using Viscount’s state of the art Physis Physical Modeling Technology, and a 26-speaker sound system, for the same price as what they expected to pay for a digital organ only.
Installed American Made Pipes
Viscount can offer your church a complete turn key hybrid organ with as many ranks of real windblown pipes as desired. Our goal is to give your ministry a superior quality product, excellent service before and after the installation, and superb parts support well into the future.
Photos from Jesus the Good Shepherd
Listen Now: J S BACH Trio Sonata No 4 in E minor, BWV 528 Adagio – Allegro
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